`Good Guys' Vs. `Bad Guys' Clash For Title

DENVER — Their defenses couldn't be more similar. Man-to-man. Pick up at half court. Deny the pass to the wing. Front the post man.

Their images couldn't be more contrasting. The pride of the NCAA; the scourge of the NCAA. One program produces lawyers, the other needs them.

That perplexing matchup concludes the NCAA basketball tournament tonight as Duke and Nevada-Las Vegas play for the national championship at McNichols Arena.

Players and coaches tried to deflect the image questions Sunday, but the differences are impossible to ignore. Duke has proven that it is possible to win with real students taking real classes. The Blue Devils are in their fourth Final Four in five seasons, and every player in Coach Mike Krzyzewski's 10-year tenure has graduated.

UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian recently concluded a 13-year legal entanglement with the NCAA, which tried to suspend him from coaching in 1977, when the Runnin' Rebels were placed on probation. Tarkanian obtained a state court order to prevent the suspension. Eleven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled, and the NCAA and Tarkanian settled out of court just last week.

The NCAA still is investigating UNLV's 1986 recruitment of New York schoolboy legend Lloyd Daniels, who had a third-grade reading level and was arrested on drug charges. Eight Rebels served one-game NCAA suspensions this season for failing to immediately repay incidental hotel expenses incurred last season. Reserve Chris Jeter was suspended by the school for three games for his role in a nasty postgame fight with players from Utah State.

"Obviously, we don't like our image," Tarkanian said Sunday. "But we can't do anything about it. Sports Illustrated wrote about our guys drinking beer in the parking lot of the arena after a game. That's bull. It couldn't have happened. We bus to the game.

"But he wrote it and it will be written again. I confronted the guy, and he said someone else had told him about it."

Krzyzewski: "I don't look at Vegas as the bad program and us as the good program. I've known Tark a long time. We talk a lot about defense. I really respect them as a basketball team and people.

"When we played (in the championship game) in '86, people tried to do the same thing, portray us as Snow White. I've ridiculed the press this year, charged officials and we've yelled at each other. We've been pretty bad, too."

Tarkanian and Krzyzewski also dismissed the comparisons of the schools' academic standards. Duke does not recruit transfers from junior colleges or four-year colleges. Tarkanian estimates that half the recruits in his 17 years at UNLV have come from junior colleges, and only in recent years has his program's graduation rate bordered on respectable.

"I don't know if we represent all the best," Krzyzewski said. "We're different from state schools. We're a small, private school."

Tarkanian: "I went to junior college myself and coached junior colleges for seven years. ... We just try to get the best players we can. The misconception is if you get a junior college kid, he's a bad kid. That's ridiculous. My son Danny was a two-time Academic All-American and graduated cum laude from law school. He attended junior college for a year."

"You hear so many things," Duke forward Robert Brickey said. "But once I met their players, it really changed my opinion. They're really good guys."

From 1973-82, only seven starters who played for Tarkanian at least one year earned degrees. Larry Moffett, a center on UNLV's 1977 Final Four team, admitted that his transcript contained grades for courses he never enrolled in. From 1983-88, 10 of 23 players who reached their final season of eligibility at UNLV graduated.

The flip side is that Tarkanian gives underprivileged kids a chance.

"If you bring in athletes and don't provide them opportunities to graduate, then you should be ridiculed and held accountable," UNLV guard Greg Anthony said. "We have two academic advisers. You have an opportunity. This team will have everyone graduate on time. ... Coach is tough. If you miss class, you run at six in the morning."

There were no debates Sunday about defense.

"For the past eight years, next to UNLV, Duke has been my favorite team," Tarkanian said. "Our defenses are very much the same. College basketball has changed so much. We've gone away from pressure defenses to combination defenses. If you spend a lot of practice time on those, you don't have time to build your man-to-man."

Krzyzewski: "I don't know who else runs it like we do. Indiana and Virginia play good man-to-man but don't pick up as high as we do."

And although tonight's game could see both teams scoring in the 80s or 90s, don't be deceived.

"The number of points doesn't decide if you're playing good defense," Tarkanian said.

UNLV's Anthony best summarized tonight's matchup.

"The way we look at it is two great basketball teams playing for the national championship," he said. "We know we're good guys, but the fact of the matter is, we are the Rebels."